1910 · CLOSE READING
The Winged Beetle
The Winged Beetle (1910), PDF p. 55
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45
THE TWO SECRETS
SHE used to lie, superbly bare
Wrapped in her harvest flame of hair,
And shooting from her steel-grey eyes
Inexorable destinies :
Mute oraclesmysterious
A soul in a sarcophagus !
For I, through all my life astrain,
Through all the pulsing of my brain,
Through all the wisdom I had won
From this one and the other one
Saw nothing. Nothing. Had I known
And loved some Sphinx of steel or stone
While countless chiliads rolled, may be
I had not guessed her mystery.
So there she lay, regarding me.
And I ?I gave the riddle up.
I drank the wine, admired the cup ;
As I suppose a wise man does
Unless he be the Man of Uz
To scrape with shards a sore that grows
The more he irks it. I suppose
All men are fools who seek the truth
At such a price as joy and youth.
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